Holder pledges to enforce all laws equally

DETROIT, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder assured an audience in Detroit that the Justice Department would enforce all of the nation's laws with "equal conviction."

"I can assure you under my leadership the Department of Justice will enforce all of our nation's laws with equal conviction," Holder told law enforcement, and community and Muslim leaders Thursday during the first awards banquet for the Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community Trust.

Holder, the nation's first African-American attorney general, said he ordered an internal review of law enforcement data within the U.S. Justice Department to study the issue of racial profiling.

"Racial profiling is simply not good law enforcement," Holder said.

Holder's remarks came amid heightened sensitivities in the Muslim community after the fatal shooting last month of Detroit Imam Luqman Abdullah by FBI agents and a Muslim soldier accused in the Fort Hood, Texas, shootings that killed 13 people and wounded 29, The Detroit News reported Friday. Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan was charged in the attack, and federal agents are looking into his alleged contacts with a radical imam before the shootings.

Holder said Muslim and Arab-Americans told him they feel queasy about their relationship with the U.S. government.

Imad Hamad, Midwest regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, told the News the event offered an opportunity to ask how the Justice Department under President Barack Obama will differ from that of former President George W. Bush.

Hamad said the real test of how the Justice Department would protect civil liberties of Arab-Americans and Muslims is in the future.

"He is setting the tone for the nation and all law enforcement, and that is very important," Hamad said. "The ultimate test ... is the future."